"With his forceful denial of charges that he would raise taxes on
the middle class, Mitt Romney used Wednesday’s debate to launch
an aggressive new effort to regain his footing in the battle over
taxes.

In one of the debate’s first exchanges, the Republican
presidential nominee directly challenged President Obama’s
assertion that Romney’s tax plan would finance big new breaks for
the wealthy by wiping out popular deductions for those who earn
less than $250,000 a year."

As the article later explains, Romney's assertion is inconsistent
with his past description of his tax plan. Romney proposes to cut
income tax rates by 20 percent but also to have a deficit neutral
tax cut. He argues that the lower tax rates will be offset by
eliminating tax deductions.

However, it is not possible to make up the lost revenue from
lower tax rates on the wealthy simply by taking away tax
breaks for the wealthy. (Romney explicitly rejected raising the
tax rate on capital gains or dividends, so the main tax break for
the wealthy is off-limits.)

The point here is very simple. If you cut Warren Buffett's tax
rate by 20 percent you will not get back the money by taking away
his mortgage interest deduction. This is why every independent
economist who has analyzed the tax cut has said that Romney's
plan implies large tax increases on middle income families.
However the Washington Post is apparently proud of Romney for
denying for boldly denying this fact.